Today’s exciting homemade pom pom turn-taking game is a really fun way to help your child develop the skill of sharing, as well as learning to be patient and a good sport. It also incorporates some fundamental math skills of estimating and counting in a highly engaging way.
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I was given permission to share today’s activity from the fabulous new book, 101 Kids Activities That Are the Bestest, Funnest Ever!: The Entertainment Solution for Parents, Relatives & Babysitters! by Holly Homer and Rachel Miller.
These ladies run the well-known Kids Activities Blog which is filled with fun and creative ideas for play for kids of all ages.
Materials:
- approximately 50 coloured pom poms
- wooden skewers sticks or pipe cleaners
- a large kitchen strainer
How to Play the Turn-Taking Game:
Setting Up
To set-up, you will need to fill the strainer with pompoms. Then poke the wooden sticks (or pipecleaners) through one side of the strainer and out the other side so the pompoms are trapped in the strainer.
Once all the sticks are in, turn the strainer upside down and prop it up on some books.
Playing the Game
Now, the turn-taking game begins! Each player may pull a stick out from the strainer and collect all the pompoms that drop out.
Keep taking turns until all the pompoms have dropped out.
It gets really exciting near the end of the game when tons of pompoms all of a sudden start coming out like an avalanche with each pull of the stick!
Enhancing the Learning
As we were playing, each time the pom poms dropped, we practised counting how many had come out. This got a little difficult near the end of the game when lots of pom poms started coming out at once, but by that point, we had already gotten in lots of practise counting!
According to the 101 Kids Activities book, the winner of the game is the one with the fewest pom poms at the end. But you could also play it so that the winner has the most pom poms. OR, downplay having a winner at all.
Because I don’t want to introduce competitive games with my son yet, we downplayed the whole winner bit. Instead, when all the pom poms had fallen out, we looked at each person’s pile and I asked my son who had the most and who had the least.
I found it really interesting that he said that I had the most when I had about 10 pompoms and he had this pile! Lol! I guess we’ll have to work on this concept some more! Good to know!
Reflections..
Overall, my son really liked this game and so did I! It was fun taking turns and it was exciting waiting to see what was going to drop out when you removed the stick.
Just a warning – if you decide to play this game, do NOT leave the room for a minute and leave your child with the pompoms, or you may end up with a mess like this!
Looking for another way to use those pom poms? Why not check out our Pom Pom Ice Cream Shoppe?
Do you play any turn-taking games with your kids that you’d like to share? I’d love to hear about them. Leave a comment!
Happy Pom Pom Dropping! (why does that somehow sound rude? ☺️)
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Another great activity! I have to say I really love your snowing airport photo :), kids are so creative!
Ha ha ha! It only took a minute while I turned my back, but probably 5 minutes to clean up! Oh, well…yes – you could call it creative! LOL